Teaching Biology

Overview

Overview

The Online Master of Science Teaching Biology Science degree program at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign is designed to give practicing teachers the opportunity to earn the M.S. in Teaching Biological Science or graduate credits in biology while living and teaching at home. Teachers certified to teach biology in public schools and admitted by the University of Illinois may take any of these courses, whether they are in a degree program or are a non-degree student.

The OMST of Biological Science program offers 6 Biology and 3 Education courses that are 8 weeks in length and completely online. To complete the program and earn a MS degree a student must complete a minimum of 5 Biology and 3 Education courses. The student is free to pick the 5 out of the 6 Biology courses offered that are of the most interest to them, or best fit into their schedule.

The courses are designed to bring the teachers up-to-date with topics in biology and science education. As the courses are designed explicitly for biology teachers rather than future researchers, the overall program will be extremely relevant to in-service teachers with course activities, assignments, and assessments developed to enable conversion into the teachers' classrooms.

The courses are designed specifically for the online environment with opportunities to interact with classmates, and not merely videos of lectures to watch and be tested on.

All courses will have asynchronous component which we conduct virtually with meeting times (generally) on Tuesday from 7:00PM Central Time - 8:30 PM Central Time. Please refer to the specific course description about participation requirements and changes to these times and dates. Reliable access to high-speed internet is essential for success in this program. Students will be expected to spend 10-20 hours each week engaged in online materials, most of which require high-speed internet access at the time of access.